Historical background

Pre-twentieth century

Many early scientists attributed the magnetism of lodestones to two different "magnetic fluids" ("effluvia"), a north-pole fluid at one end and a south-pole fluid at the other, which attracted and repelled each other in analogy to positive and negative electric charge. However, an improved understanding of electromagnetism in the nineteenth century showed that the magnetism of lodestones was properly explained by Ampère's circuital law, not magnetic monopole fluids. Gauss's law for magnetism, one of Maxwell's equations, is the mathematical statement that magnetic monopoles do not exist. Nevertheless, it was pointed out by Pierre Curie in 1894 that magnetic monopoles could conceivably exist, despite not having been seen so far.

Historical background

Pre-twentieth century

Many early scientists attributed the magnetism of lodestones to two different "magnetic fluids" ("effluvia"), a north-pole fluid at one end and a south-pole fluid at the other, which attracted and repelled each other in analogy to positive and negative electric charge. However, an improved understanding of electromagnetism in the nineteenth century showed that the magnetism of lodestones was properly explained by Ampère's circuital law, not magnetic monopole fluids. Gauss's law for magnetism, one of Maxwell's equations, is the mathematical statement that magnetic monopoles do not exist. Nevertheless, it was pointed out by Pierre Curie in 1894 that magnetic monopoles could conceivably exist, despite not having been seen so far.

In the history of physics, there are occasional metaphorical shouts from the void that are observed once and never again ... While it has long been theorized that magnets with a single pole may be physically possible, the experimental detection of what was thought to be a magneticmonopole occurred on Valentine’s Day in 1982, though it, too, was never seen again ... Hence, why we call it “dark” ... Some caveats here, of course ... MORE IN. ....

In doing so, Halbach had discovered a way to create ‘near-monopole’ magnetic fields, meaning that approximately 97% of one pole is enhanced, while the other pole’s magnetic field is reduced to about 3% ... Unlike permanent magnets, electromagnets cannot be oriented in a Halbach sequence because the copper wires create a physical and energized barrier that prevents magnetic forces from combining to form a near-monopole field....

Vienna, Austria (SPX) Dec 14, 2017. The startling similarity between the physical laws describing electric phenomena and those describing magnetic phenomena has been known since the 19th century. However, one piece that would make the two perfectly symmetric was missing. magneticmonopoles. While magneticmonopoles in the form of elementary particles remain elusive, there have been some recent successes in engineering objects that ... ....

This time around, they took a look at the math and realised that this system had taken on the properties of a magneticmonopole from the view of the molecules inside of the sphere ...It’s not the first time someone has engineered a magneticmonopole—but it’s an interesting system where monopoles have been present all along and they seem to exist as part of nature....

In work published in Physical Review Letters, scientists from RIKEN in Japan have discovered interesting new magnetic properties of a type of materials known as "quantum spin ice." ... One important property of these materials is that they have virtual monopoles—particles that are either north or south but not like typical magnets, which invariably have both a north and south pole confined together....

They were ten days away from their A-level exams, the ones that determine the direction the rest of their lives would take, but they’d been interrupted from their studies to discuss the deepest secrets of the universe—their work hunting for the magneticmonopole at the Large Hadron Collider... But a magneticmonopole would only have a single pole, so its lines head off into infinity....

Scientists have made the first experimental observations of the dynamics of isolated monopoles in quantum matter. The obtained fundamental understanding of monopole dynamics may help in the future to build even closer analogues of the magneticmonopoles. <!-- more --> ... ....

It requires the existence of magnetic charges that are known magneticmonopoles... The search for magneticmonopoles has been inconclusive and it had people working on alternative takes to save the symmetry ... "Gravity spoils the symmetry regardless of whether magneticmonopoles exist or not ... But if the electric-magnetic duality is not valid, then this is no longer true ... We might soon find out if gravity has killed the magneticmonopoles....

Electric charges are conserved. The same would be expected to hold for magnetic charges, yet magneticmonopoles have never been observed. It is therefore surprising that the laws of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, combined with Maxwell’s equations, suggest that colloidal particles heated or cooled in certain polar or paramagnetic solvents may behave... ....

Is there any magnet with a single pole?. Magnets found in nature and those made by man, are found to have two poles without exception ... Several experiments to detect magneticmonopoles have been inconclusive ... These areas are locations for sudden changes in the magnetic environment or the ‘magnetic storms’ ... composition, density and magnetism....

If you chop a magnet in half, you end up with two smaller magnets. Both the original and the new magnets have “north” and “south” poles. But what if single north and south poles exist, just like positive and negative electric charges? These hypothetical beasts, known as “magneticmonopoles,” are an important prediction in several theories ... ....